No longer installable, unmounted, unknown BSoD error code

[Guest]

I had some major issues with a computer to the point of no longer booting.
This is aside from the point, and I will coach my friend on how to protect
his computer in the future. His attempts to fix it led to me trying it and
now hoping for some help here.

When it couldn't boot anymore, it got to the Login screen, however no users
appeared to click. His attempt to get to the Recovery Console led him to
astray somehow (muddled info) and it got to the point of just attempting to
reinstall Windows, maybe saving the data, just wanting a working computer
though.

Well, installation would hang at some unknown point and this is where I came
in.

First I check to see what happens when I turn it on. It tries to Boot from
Lan. I pop the CD in, and it tries to Boot from Lan. I pop a diskette in
and it boots from the diskette.

Working with this, I attempted a fixdisk I have used in the past from
http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html to no luck. It came back
"No Hard Disk Found".
I attempted a Network Boot CD that seemed promising which failed due to DHCP
issues.
I downloaded the Windows XP Home SP2 and SP1a boot disks (the six floppys)
and attempted to install off of them, switched from SP2 to SP1a after a BSoD,
which occurred with the SP1a as well. Unmountable Boot Volume. Seen that
before, but this is a laptop and I can't just pop it open and check
connections.

I have been unable to find anywhere, anything that informs me of the top
stop code after 0x...ed, "0x842f5c28". I figured this would move me in the
next general direction but nothing. I then attempted afterwards to try
installing by SP2 and SP1a disks again, hoping for some luck and just a bad
night and it was hot (one can hope), to no luck.

Everything says to use the Recovery Console etc., but I can't boot from CD
or get to that point with the floppys. As soon as Disk6 is done it
immediately goes to the error screen, no chance of seeing a menu. I tried
pressing 'r' throughout the entire loading to beat it to punch, get the RC up
before the BSoD but nada.



HP Pavillion ze5300
was running Windows XP Home
512mb
3ghz Pent4


Any and all comments and help is greatly appreciated,

-Alex-
Lawrence

 

[Adam Leinss]

I had some major issues with a computer to the point of no longer
booting. This is aside from the point, and I will coach my friend
on how to protect his computer in the future. His attempts to fix
it led to me trying it and now hoping for some help here.

Grab the Ultimate Boot CD which uses WinPE techology to boot the system
(Link here: http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm).

Save his data somewhere else (if you have a laptop you should be able
to setup a mini network and use your laptop's hard drive as a dumping
place).

Wipe and reload.

Adam